You can now view the entire seven-mile Atlantic coastal hike along the Cliffs of Moher from home.
Photo by: Google Trekker

The Google Trekker Loan program has finally teamed up with Ireland to create breathtaking, panoramic “Street Views” of the seven-mile trail along the Cliffs of Moher as well as other trails and sights, in County Clare and other counties.

The Google Trekker is a 42-pound camera backpack with 15 lenses and the ability to record stunning 360-degree panoramic and bird’s eye view footage. It makes rounds to special, hard to reach destinations or places with difficult terrain - it has traveled all around the world, from the Taj Mahal to the Great Barrier Reef to the Grand Canyon (and many more locations).

The Clare Local Development Company is the first Irish organization to partner with Google in the Trekker Loan program, which enables an intrepid walker to apply to borrow the Trekker and film a special walkabout. Those who prefer not to make the actual trek can then view footage of the famous landscapes from a phone, tablet or computer.

“County Clare has arguably some of the best and most varied trails on offer of any county in Ireland,” Eoin Hogan, the rural recreation officer for Clare Local Development Company, told Business and Leadership.

“Our motivation was to be able to showcase our stunning native landscape and inspire a wider audience to come and visit the county’s trail for themselves.”

Now you can view colonies of seabirds and other flora and fauna along the 7-mile Atlantic coastal trail on the Cliffs of Moher that links Liscannor to Doolin, as well as six other loops and trails in Clare.

There’s the Lough Avalla Loop through a working farm of cattle, the Ballycuggeran Loop that overlooks Lough Derg, the Carran Loop through the village of Carron, and the O’Brien’s Bridge Trail full of canal towpaths and lovely riverbanks.

The intrepid walker recorded 21 hours (1,260 minutes) and 30 miles worth of footage in Clare over the span of three weeks.

The project was a joint effort of the Clare County Council, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Fáilte Ireland, the Shannon Development, and local farmers who provided the walker with access to their land.